Legalized marijuana in the U.S. has led to a windfall for government and business.

WASHINGTON—The sale of marijuana for recreational use became legal in Colorado and the state of Washington last year, Oregon this year. (Alaska and Washington, D.C. now allow the use of marijuana, but selling marijuana is still illegal.) While it’s still too soon to draw firm conclusions about the impact of U.S. legalization, here’s what has happened so far.

Highs 

No boom in teen use: What about the children? Legalization opponents claimed youth marijuana use would skyrocket if the law stopped treating weed as a demon to be feared by adults. That has not happened so far. 

The state of Washington has projected that it will collect $1 billion in sales tax revenue over the next four years as a result of legal marijuana sales. In the first year of legal sales, the state collected $67.5 million, and that total is forecast to rise to $154.6 million this year.

In 2017 the state is looking to collect $267 million, while the projections for 2018 and 2019 rise to $333 million and $369 million, respectively. That comes to $1.12 billion. State revenues for the four years are projected at $79.1 billion, of which legal marijuana sales will account for about 1.4% of the four-year total. Not exactly the end of the rainbow, but a welcome addition to the state’s general fund and its health services budget.

The song “Cat’s in the Cradle” plays softly in the background as a white-bearded Eric Zeid unscrews the lid of a glass jar filled with marijuana.

Zeid is sitting behind his desk at his medical dispensary Swinging Bridges in Alger. He’s giving a consultation to disabled Navy veteran Jamie Bussiere.

“How are you today, my friend?” Zeid asks Bussiere.

Bussiere suffers from neck pain and arthritis. He smokes marijuana to ease the pain and prefers it to prescription drugs.

Medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 1998. Unlike recreational marijuana, which was legalized in 2012, medical marijuana is unregulated.

That’s about to change.

Kristian Rouz – The US state of Washington is anticipating to extract significant fiscal benefits from legal marijuana sales as the market has been booming since legalizing the licensed use of medical and recreational weed.

However, Olympia’s bright fiscal outlook might be undermined, as the marijuana industry in the neighboring state of Oregon is starting to distract customers from the Evergreen State.

The ‘weed craze’ in Portland has offered more often than not more attractive prices since the legalization bill was adopted in July, thus impairing the commercial performance of pot shops in the Seattle-Vancouver border region.

WASHINGTON state expects marijuana sales taxes to bring in more than $1 billion over the next four years, according to a budget forecast published by the Office of Financial Management.

In the first year since legalising both medical and recreational cannabis, Washington collected $67.5 million in marijuana-related taxes, directed toward its general fund and health-related services.

This year, the state expects to pull in $154.6 million. As of Sept. 30, three months into the state’s fiscal year, Washington had already collected $37.6 million, said Steve Lerch, executive director and chief economist for the state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.

The votes are advisory only, meaning it's up to tribal leaders on the next step.

We all need more and better information about the pros and cons of marijuana. What can pain management doctors tell us about the value of it for their patients? And what detrimental effects does it have on people?

Law enforcement officials certainly have some opinions about the impact of marijuana on drivers. Judges and attorneys certainly could add some perspectives on the usage of marijuana, especially regarding its potential to create additional illegal drug use.

VANCOUVER — A Colorado official has some sobering words of advice for Justin Trudeau if he fulfils his promise to legalize pot in Canada.

“It’s going to be a lot harder to implement than you think. It’s going to take a lot longer to do it. And it’s going to cost more than you think,” said Lewis Koski, director of the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division.

Colorado is one of four U.S. states to fully legalize recreational bud. Their challenges — including how to regulate edibles like brownies and cookies and a rise in drug-impaired driving — could be instructive for Canada’s incoming prime minister.

Among the questions Trudeau’s government could grapple with are whether to allow people to grow pot at home or buy it in stores, and how much sales tax to charge.

This year has been an exciting one for proponents of both recreational and medicinal marijuana legalization efforts. Two states began to allow medicinal use, while two more states and Washington, D.C. have started to permit recreational use. Let’s take a look at the latest in these territories and how laws, regulations and rules have been developed around these measures.

Recreational Use

Oregon

The ridiculous failure of a drug war trudges on here in America. Now researchers at Washington State University are working hard to… CURE CANCER!

Nope.

Save Babies from SIDS!

Nope.

Feed homeless people! Solve the energy crisis! Help old ladies cross the street!

Nope, nope, and extra nope.

They are developing a handheld portable device to screen people’s breath for THC, the chemical that a News10 Rochester reporter so astutely reported, “makes you high” in the video clip below.

I originally wrote this piece by stating that "Don E. Wirtshafter has now taken to blatantly lying about Issue 3." Mr. Wirtshafter, a man of considerable means, then threatened to sue me for libel for publishing that. I have to apologize; it was wrong of me to characterize Mr. Wirtshafter's statements as "lies". In order to prove someone is lying, you have to show that there is a factual truth, they know that factual truth, and they are consciously promoting statements contrary to the factual truth.